With recent discussions of EA influence, it’s worth taking a look at the first time an effectiveness-oriented altruistic movement held significant sway over a country: 4th century BC China. The Mohists argued for “impartial care” as the moral standard, prioritized prevention of war as a top cause area, had members take high-paying positions in governments (i.e. the war-making bodies) to try accelerate defense over offense (and sometimes donate gold to the movement), and scorned spending on rituals and ceremonies on grounds that the poor should be given more food instead. The Daoists attacked them for demandingness and the Confucians for treating family like strangers. All lost to the Legalists when the Qin dynasty started. When impartial welfare philosophy came to the West with Bentham, it made a big advance on the Mohists. Mohist doctrine had been afraid of ghosts. Bentham disbelieved ghosts on the grounds that no one ever saw a naked ghost. He was deathly scared of goblins instead.

This is a slide from Terence Tao's 'Math 2.0' public lecture yesterday evening at Caltech. I am highly confident that, if the cure actually worked, almost any Stage 4 cancer patient would tell you that human comprehension of its mechanism is completely irrelevant to them.